UFO'S of UAP'S, ASTRONOMIE, RUIMTEVAART, ARCHEOLOGIE, OUDHEIDKUNDE, SF-SNUFJES EN ANDERE ESOTERISCHE WETENSCHAPPEN

Zoeken naar aliens: we moeten het doen, maar we weten eigenlijk niet hoe. “De kans dat we buitenaards leven in onze directe omgeving gaan vinden, is héél klein.”

Al decennia speuren we met behulp van radiotelescopen naar signalen van buitenaards leven. Zonder resultaat. Misschien zou je bijna gaan vermoeden dat het leven op aarde uniek is. De meeste wetenschappers willen daar echter nog niet aan. Zij kunnen zich onmogelijk voorstellen dat er in een universum gevuld met miljarden hemellichamen maar één planeet is waarop intelligent leven is ontstaan. Ook Heino Falcke, als radioastronoom en astrodeeltjesfysicus verbonden aan de Radboud Universiteit in Nijmegen, acht het bestaan van aliens “aannemelijk”. Maar op de vraag of hij denkt dat er buitenaards leven is, antwoordt hij wat terughoudender. “We moeten het eerst vinden, tot die tijd weten we het gewoon niet.”

Zeldzaam
En het vinden van die aliens: dat blijkt nog niet zo eenvoudig. “Wat is een succesvolle methode om aliens op te sporen? Dat weten we eigenlijk pas als we ze vinden.” Maar dat de radiotelescopen van SETI ondanks dat ze al decennia op zoek zijn naar buitenaardse signalen nog geen succes hebben gehad, wil niet gelijk zeggen dat die methode niet deugt of dat er geen aliens bestaan. “Intelligent leven is zelfs in de geschiedenis van onze planeet een heel zeldzaam verschijnsel,” stelt Falcke. Het lijkt dan ook aannemelijk dat intelligent buitenaards leven ook niet zomaar overal ontspringt. En dus is het zoeken naar een speld in een hooiberg. Die spreekwoordelijk hooiberg is enorm. “Je moet de omvang van het heelal nooit onderschatten.” En op het moment kunnen we zelfs met de krachtigste radiotelescopen in een gegeven periode slechts in een klein hoekje van die hooiberg naar de spreekwoordelijke speld zoeken. “De kans dat we buitenaards leven in onze directe omgeving gaan vinden, is klein,” denkt Falcke. Maar hoe meer planeten en sterren we op steeds grotere afstand van de aarde bestuderen, hoe groter de kans wordt dat het een keer raak is.

“WAAROM ZOU JE WILLEN COMMUNICEREN MET IEMAND DIE ONS WEL KAN BEZOEKEN, MAAR WAAR WIJ NIET NAAR TOE KUNNEN?”

METI
Terwijl SETI in een fractie van dat enorme universum op zoek is naar buitenaardse signalen, gaan er ook stemmen op voor een actievere zoektocht naar leven: METI. METI staat voor Messaging Extraterrestrial Intelligence. Het is eigenlijk heel simpel: in plaats van te zoeken naar buitenaardse signalen gaan we zelf radiosignalen uitzenden in de hoop dat aliens die dan opvangen. Falcke is echter niet enthousiast. “Ten eerste denk ik niet dat het wat oplevert. De kans dat iemand dat oppikt, is klein. Ten tweede vind ik het geen goed idee om met heel veel energie echt in de Melkweg bekend te maken dat wij er zijn. Je weet tenslotte nooit wat je tegenkomt.” Want de kans dat aliens de signalen opvangen, is klein, maar weldegelijk aanwezig. En daar krijgt Falcke eerlijk gezegd de bibbers van. “We weten uit de geschiedenis dat een botsing tussen twee beschavingen altijd uitvalt in het voordeel van de beschaving met grotere resources en betere technologieën. In dit geval zou dat de beschaving zijn die de ander kan bezoeken.” En dus lijkt het erop dat we bij voorbaat al aan het kortste eind trekken. “Waarom zou je willen communiceren met iemand die ons wel kan bezoeken, maar waar wij niet naar toe kunnen?” Falcke lijkt er nu al van uit te gaan dat we van aliens geen amicale houding hoeven te verwachten. “Waarom zouden zij beter zijn dan wij? Mensen die dat denken, zijn naïef.”

Aan boord van de beide Voyager-ruimtesondes bevindt zich een boodschap voor aliens. Mocht buitenaards leven de sondes – waarvan er één vermoedelijk al in de interstellaire ruimte is beland – tegenkomen, kunnen ze dankzij de grammofoonplaat onder meer aardse geluiden (wind en vogelzang) horen.

Afbeelding: NASA / JPL.

LOFAR
Maar als SETI – tot op heden – onsuccesvol is en METI ronduit gevaarlijk, hoe moeten we dan verder? Falcke is wel te spreken over Breakthrough Listen, een project waarbinnen met meerdere radiotelescopen naar buitenaardse radiosignalen en laserpulsen wordt gezocht. “Dat is een slimme aanpak.” Maar als Falcke het voor het zeggen had – en een ongelimiteerd budget toegewezen kreeg – zou hij de zoektocht naar aliens toch net wat anders aanpakken. “Ik zou zoiets als LOFAR (een radiotelescoop met duizenden radioantennes, red.) opnieuw gaan bouwen, maar dan groter. En dan de hele hemel doorzoeken.” Met een beetje geluk resulteert het in het oppikken van een buitenaards signaal. “En anders levert het sowieso fantastische wetenschap op.” Maar zo’n LOFAR 2.0 blijft – ondanks dat we in staat zijn om deze te bouwen – voorlopig een hersenspinsel, denkt Falcke. “Voor zoiets heb je miljarden nodig.”

Vragen
Terwijl wetenschappers zich het hoofd breken over hóe we die aliens nu het beste kunnen vinden, rijst wellicht bij jou de vraag waarom we zo nodig op zoek moeten naar buitenaards leven. Falcke kan er kort over zijn: “Het is een bijzonder fundamenteel vraagstuk.” Hij wijst erop dat er wel miljoenen vragen te bedenken zijn die met de ontdekking van buitenaards leven wellicht beantwoord kunnen worden. “Hoe werkt het leven ergens anders? Welke kennis hebben de aliens? Hoe zit hun samenleving in elkaar? Hoe kijken zij naar het heelal of naar religie?” somt Falcke op. “En door naar anderen te kijken, ga je ook nadenken over jezelf.”

“STEL JE STUURT: “IK BEN ER, ZULLEN WE NAAR DE KROEG GAAN?”, DAN BEN JE AL DOOD VOOR JE ANTWOORD KRIJGT”

Communiceren
Om die miljoenen prangende vragen te kunnen beantwoorden, moeten we echter niet alleen buitenaards leven ontdekken, maar ook een manier vinden om ermee te communiceren. En dat is waarschijnlijk een stuk lastiger dan veel mensen – afgaand op sciencefictionfilms – denken, vertelt Falcke. “Waarschijnlijk bevinden aliens zich op grote afstand. Als we een signaal van hen oppikken, is dat misschien al wel 1000 of 10.000 jaar onderweg.” En dus is niet bewezen dat de beschaving die dit signaal uitzond er nog steeds is. “Wie zegt dat wij er over 1000 jaar nog zijn?” En als je dan een signaal terugstuurt, is dat ook weer duizenden jaren onderweg. “Stel je stuurt: “Ik ben er, zullen we naar de kroeg gaan?”, dan ben je al dood voor je antwoord krijgt.”

Falcke is binnenkort hopelijk te zien in de documentaire ‘Searching for Aliens‘. De documentaire gaat over vijf mensen die op verschillende manieren zoeken naar buitenaards leven. Om de documentaire van de grond te krijgen, is nog een klein beetje geld nodig. Vandaar dat een crowdfundingsactie is opgezet. Je kunt er hier meer over lezen.

Religie
Maar zelfs als communiceren lastig of onmogelijk is, zal de wetenschap dat aliens bestaan of bestaan hebben, toch verstrekkende gevolgen hebben op aarde? Falcke denkt van niet. “Misschien dat de kranten er de eerste dag vol van staan, maar de volgende dag gaat het leven weer verder. Dat gaat onze beschaving echt niet op zijn kop zetten.” Zelfs religies zouden het bestaan van de alien kunnen overleven, denkt Falcke, zelf christen. “Bijna 900 jaar geleden werd er binnen de kerk al gediscussieerd over het bestaan van andere planeten. En toen werd besloten dat het verboden was om uit te sluiten dat andere werelden bestaan. En een Parijse bisschop voegde er later aan toe dat je niet mocht zeggen dat buitenaards leven niet bestaat. Want zo beperk je de macht van God en je moet God niet voorschrijven wat hij wel en niet mag creëren.”

Aliens zetten de wereld dus niet op hun kop. Anders is dat voor de wetenschappelijke wereld. “Als we ze vinden, leren we ontzettend veel. Dan verdubbelt in één klap het aantal beschavingen in de Melkweg! En misschien vinden we wel leven op planeten waarop we het helemaal niet verwacht hadden.” Een andere optie is natuurlijk dat we geen intelligent, maar eenvoudig buitenaards leven vinden. “Plant- of dierachtigen of eenvoudige cellen,” somt Falcke op. Hij benadrukt dat het vinden van sporen van die levensvormen misschien nog wel lastiger is dan het vinden van intelligent leven. “Daarvoor moet je in de dampkring van planeten kijken en daar heb je heel krachtige telescopen voor nodig.” Met de nieuwe generatie telescopen – zoals de James Webb-telescoop – kunnen we die dampkringen onder de loep gaan nemen, maar grote doorbraken verwacht Falcke nog niet. “De komende decennia verwacht ik dat we zo af en toe horen dat er misschien een aanwijzing voor buitenaards leven is gevonden.” Maar zeker zullen we daar – zonder nog betere telescopen – dus niet van zijn. Dat het zo lastig wordt om aliens te vinden, kan eigenlijk geen verrassing zijn. Neem nou Mars, een planeet waarvan sterk vermoed wordt dat deze ooit leven herbergde. “Deze bevindt zich in de achtertuin en we kunnen de planeet bezoeken en nog weten we niet zeker of er leven is geweest.” Of buitenaards leven bestaat, kan dan ook nog eeuwen een raadsel zijn. “Maar dat raadsel kan ook morgen opgelost zijn.”

New Mexico may have its Roswell, Britain has its Rendlesham Forest, Nova Scotia has its Shag Harbour, but Manitoba also has a claim to stake when it comes to one of the most notable unidentified flying object sightings around the world.

Fifty years ago, an amateur prospector saw something at a remote spot in this provincial park that changed his life and the lives of his family members, and not always for the better.

No one knows for sure what Stefan Michalak saw while he was looking for signs of gold and silver in the rocks in the Precambrian shield, but numerous military and scientific experts went to the site, tested the area, repeatedly interviewed him and, in the end, the report of the United States government-sponsored UFO project concluded that the incident was "unknown."

JESSICA FINN / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS

Stan Michalak points out landmarks matching those in a sketch his father, Stephen, provided to the RCMP following the 1967 UFO incident he witnessed.

Surprisingly, it was only a few days ago that for the first time, his youngest son Stan — who was nine years old at the time and has now co-written a book being launched this weekend about how his family experienced the unwanted attention from authorities and the media — visited the site itself, the big bang of the incident and the elephant in his family’s life.

"I’ve always wanted to do it — and then not," Stan said earlier this month shortly before going to the site accompanied by the Free Press. "I don’t know why. This is closure. Putting the book together is kind of farewell, and I’m done.

"This will be the first and last time. It is a chapter of our family life and history that remained before us for a long time."

What Stefan — who also went by Stephen and Steve — saw on May 20, 1967, at about 12:15 p.m., is now known around the world as the Falcon Lake Incident, considered one of the most documented UFO sightings of all time.

In a short 40-page booklet entitled My Encounter With The UFO, which Michalak wrote a few months after the sighting in his native Polish — and then had it translated into English — he said, "Up until the time and the events I am about to describe I had no special interests in ‘flying saucers’ and other strange phenomena one hears about time and again.

"Maybe they are real, maybe not, but I had never been seriously concerned about them. Not until May 20, 1967, when I, perhaps as nobody else — or at least very few — came in such a close contact with one of those strange objects commonly called UFOs."

•••

WINNIPEG FREE PRESS</p><p>Stefan Michalak suffered burns to his torso during his encounter. “A sharp beam of heat had shot from the craft... My chest was severely burned.”</p></p> — **WINNIPEG FREE PRESS**

**Stefan Michalak suffered burns to his torso during his encounter. “A sharp beam of heat had shot from the craft... My chest was severely burned.”**

It all began when Michalak, 51, married with three children, and self-described amateur prospector, went to the Whiteshell on the Friday of the first long weekend of the summer looking for precious metals. As he had done before, he stayed at a motel that used to be on the south side of the Trans-Canada Highway. At 5:30 a.m. he got up, crossed the road, and began finding his way north through the pine trees and rock formations. Eventually, he got to a small peninsula on top of which were exposed rocks, trees and scrub, with a lake on one side and marsh on the other two.

He was chipping away at a quartz formation, just after eating lunch, when he was "startled by the most uncanny cackle of the geese that were still in the area. Something had obviously frightened them.

"Then I saw them. Two cigar-shaped objects with humps on them about halfway down from the sky. They appeared to be descending and glowing with an intense scarlet glare. As these ‘objects’ came closer to the earth they became more oval-shaped."

One took off a few minutes later, while the second one landed about 50 metres from where he was crouching. He said there was an opening near the top of the craft with brilliant purple light coming out. After waiting several minutes, he went closer, stopping when he heard voices.

"They sounded like human, although somewhat muffled by the sounds of the motor... I was able to make out two distinct voices, one with a higher pitch than the other."

Still thinking it was likely some type of new American craft, Michalak called through the opening, at first in English. When he didn’t receive any response, he called out in other languages. He even stuck his head in the opening where he saw "a maze of lights."

The opening suddenly closed, but just before the craft took off, he touched it. It was so hot it burned the glove he had on.

"All of a sudden the craft tilted slightly leftward. I turned and felt a scorching pain around my chest. My shirt and my undershirt were afire. A sharp beam of heat had shot from the craft. I tore my shirt and undershirt and threw them to the ground. My chest was severely burned."

Newspaper photos of the time show Michalak, his pyjama top open, with a series of circular third-degree burn marks making a square pattern on his chest.

Then Michalak began to get a headache, started vomiting and felt weak. He was able to stumble out of the bush and later that evening board a bus back to Winnipeg; his eldest son Mark drove him to Misericordia hospital to treat his burns. Doctors there, and in the United States, never could say how he got the burns. The next day he gave his first press interview, the first of many in the days, months and years ahead with media, law enforcement, government and military authorities.

A box of the booklets, written when Michalak and the family grew tired of answering the same questions from strangers, was stationed by the front door so that Mark could hand them to the curious.

Michalak concluded the booklet by not blaming whatever — or whoever — was on the craft for his injuries.

"The burns and suffering I had endured were not caused by any aggressive moves of the craft or its occupants... if I stayed farther away from the craft I would not have been burned or suffered in any other way.

"I offer this warning to all who may also encounter such a craft: keep away from it far enough to protect yourself."

•••

A copy of the sketch Stefan Michalak made for the RCMP and the Royal Canadian Air Force.</p></p> — **A copy of the sketch Stefan Michalak made for the RCMP and the Royal Canadian Air Force**

Who was Stefan Michalak?

At the beginning of his booklet, Michalak introduces himself as having being born 51 years earlier in Poland and emigrating to Canada in 1949, after "the turbulent years of the Second World War that started in my homeland."

Those "turbulent years" included becoming a junior officer in the Polish army just before the Nazi blitzkrieg stormed in and took over the country, and then joining the Polish Home Army in resistance operations against the Germans. Because they were associated with him, his future wife Maria and her two sisters were arrested and sent to a concentration camp in 1943. All three survived and were liberated two years later.

Michalak, who was now serving with the resistance against the Communist regime, was forced to escape the country, even though Maria, now his wife, had one child and was pregnant with another. They didn’t see each other for almost a decade. They first lived in Regina, where their third child was born, and then moved to Winnipeg.

He was working at Inland Cement, located on Kenaston Boulevard behind IKEA, when he went off to the Whiteshell for what he figured would be one more weekend of looking for precious metals.

By all accounts, Michalak was not somebody who lied and certainly was not somebody who was seeking publicity. He just wanted someone to tell him what he saw and felt it was his duty to report it to the authorities.

•••

Sketch made by Stefan Michalak after witnessing an unidentified flying object in 1967. It’s now widely known as the Falcon Lake Incident.</p></p> — **Sketch made by Stefan Michalak after witnessing an unidentified flying object in 1967. It’s now widely known as the Falcon Lake Incident.**

By horse, it takes about 45 minutes to get to the site located a few kilometres north of the townsite of Falcon Lake. The trail is narrow, marked with a few elevation changes, and boulders and small rocks that horses try to avoid. There are plenty of tree branches and trunks forcing detours, and streams and boggy areas to cross.

But at least there’s a trail. When Michalak first went to the site, he was simply walking through the bush looking for minerals. He couldn’t even find the site the first time he tried to locate it for police, and then Life magazine. He managed to find it again about a month later.

A half-century later, everything has changed. Then-immature trees are now mature, towering over the site. Young trees are filling in some of the sightlines Michalak would have had. Much of the flat rock area is now covered by lichen and short plants.

But, the outlines of the site, as seen on a drawing he made of the area by memory for the RCMP and Royal Canadian Air Force, are still there.

It took most of Stan’s lifetime to get to the site. Maybe it was part of his personal catharsis of finally seeing the spot his dad saw through his own eyes, but the overriding thought he expressed aloud was simply: "What the hell was he doing here?"

Holding a copy of the hand-drawn map his father had made of the site, Stan continued to stand in place while looking around. Then he walked around, examining for a few seconds the line of quartz running through the rock. He peppered UFO expert Chris Rutkowski, who travelled with him to the site, with a few questions to get a better sense of where everything was. He walked some more, shaking his head back and forth. And then he looked off into the distance seeing only reeds, water and mud between where he was and the lines of trees in the distance.

**JESSICA FINN / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS**

**Stan Michalak describes the scene where he believes his father Stephen was eating lunch when he encountered a UFO in 1967.**

It might not have been what Stan expected.

"There is nothing here to attract or entrance," he said. "But I guess this was just a stop. He chipped at some rocks. He took a break. If it hadn’t happened he would have moved on until he was tired and then gone back to the hotel.

"But that’s not what happened."

Seeing the site didn’t shake his continued belief of what his father saw.

"I always believed that what he said was the truth," Stan said.

"I think what happened is exactly as he described... it pisses me off that people didn’t believe him.

"I still get angry.

•••

</p><p>Chris Rutkowski is the UFO expert in Winnipeg. He has a piece of radioactive metal (in photo) from a UFO incident. — **BORIS MINKEVICH / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS**

**Chris Rutkowski is the UFO expert in Winnipeg. He has a piece of radioactive metal (in photo) from a UFO incident.**

Chris Rutkowski, research co-ordinator of Winnipeg-based Ufology Research — and Canada’s foremost UFO expert — said the Falcon Lake Incident is one of almost 2,000 sightings from Manitoba’s historical records.

"If it’s a hoax it has enough complications to make it one of the best on record," Rutkowski said.

"It is even better than Roswell, because with that one the government denies anything happened... and it takes effort to get to the place. But (Falcon Lake is) part of Manitoba’s history."

Rutkowski said 1967 was "a watershed year" for UFOs in Canada.

"There were UFOs in Shag Harbour, where it crashed in the ocean, another in Rivers, Manitoba and a case in Calgary, where a photograph was taken of a silver object. Right across Canada there were an amazing number of sightings, for some reason."

There are about 1,200 reported UFO sightings every year across Canada, he said. About three to five per cent can’t be explained away.

"None say we’ve been visited by aliens, but they are very curious cases," he said.

Rutkowski said he not only has copies of the hundreds of documents produced by the authorities, he also has in his possession a piece of the melted radioactive metal found at the site.

Rutkowski said that from his knowledge of all the other cases, the Falcon Lake Incident is notable because, "(Michalak) reported just the facts without very much embellishment."

"If I’d made it up I would have gone to town (with details), but he said what he saw. He didn’t care of anyone believe him or not.

"As far as what Stefan Michalak encountered — I have no idea. But it’s a riveting story."

•••

**JESSICA FINN / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS**

Stan Michalak, whose father reported a UFO incident in 1967 while prospecting in the Falcon Lake area. Stan was only 10 years old at the time and while this has influenced the last 50 years of his life, he had never been to the site until now.

Five decades on, whatever happened near Falcon Lake is still of interest to UFO enthusiasts. Regular folks, too.

Local resident Bob Firth has no doubt that Michalak saw what he reported that day. Firth, who works at the Falcon Lake Golf Course, may have seen one of the two objects.

"I was 14 at the time," he said. "It is such a weird story."

Firth said he and three friends were at the beach on the south side of Falcon Lake when they saw something on the other side, north of the lake, moving westward.

"It was little. If you hold your thumb up, it would be that big. The thing just jumped across the sky. ‘What is that?’ And I said, ‘it’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s a flying saucer.’

"I didn’t think anything more about it."

But later that weekend while his family was in Winnipeg to see Victoria Day fireworks, someone ran up to them and started talking about the Falcon Lake sighting. That’s when Firth realized he might have seen the same thing.

"I was later interviewed by someone with the University of Manitoba," he said. "In my mind I can still see it. Something crossed the sky and disappeared."

Barb Hamilton didn’t see the UFO, but that didn’t stop her and other local kids from getting caught up in all the excitement.

"I was 12 at the time and for young kids, after what happened, it started everyone to wonder," she said. "We kids got together and formed a little club for UFOs."

And they thought they were hot on the trail when one of them heard a beeping sound in the forest.

"We were all convinced it was something. We called all the kids together and we went off in the direction of the beeping sound. We couldn’t find it and came flying back and just screamed."

But Hamilton said her dad suggested they speak with a wildlife expert and, after they did, she heard the sound of the Saw-whet Owl.

"Its mating call sounds like a machine," she said, but quickly added that she doesn’t doubt Michalak’s story.

"I don’t think Stefan was making it up," she said. "I think he saw something. I just can’t explain it."

Falcon Beach Ranch owner Devin Imrie offers trail rides to the site for people who make reservations in advance.

This weekend, the ranch is hosting a 50th anniversary commemorative event with escorted trail rides to the site.

"We’ve been going to the site for a number of years now," he said.

"It’s a real range of people who go there. We get a lot of people who had been in the area as kids. Others never heard of it before they came here and think it sounds interesting. And then we get a few UFO enthusiasts who know more about it than I know.

"They all are just fascinated by it."

Imrie, who grew up at the ranch, said he did a school project on the incident.

"It really is part of the history of this community," he said.

LAUNCH OF WHEN THEY APPEARED — FALCON LAKE 1967: THE INSIDE STORY OF A CLOSE ENCOUNTER

McNally Robinson Booksellers
Grant Park Shopping Centre
Saturday May 20, 7 p.m.
Stan Michalak and Chris Rutkowski

The Falcon Beach Ranch is hosting a 50th anniversary celebration of the Falcon Lake incident Saturday and Sunday, including escorted horseback rides to the landing site at 10 a.m. and 2 p.m., a barbecue dinner and a fireside chat with Stan Michalak, Chris Rutkowski and others. The cost is $65.

As well, reservations are taken at other times of the year for trail rides to the site. Call 204-349-2410 or go to www.falconbeachranch.com for more information.

Canada’s history, too.

On June 29, 1967, a rookie Manitoba MP stood up in the House of Commons and asked a question about UFO investigations and the Michalak case.

"I had felt obliged to ask a question — it had happened in my riding," said former governor general and premier Ed Schreyer, then an NDP member of Parliament.

"Plus, I was intrigued that someone seemed so genuinely convinced he had seen something inexplicable. I asked the question and the question was taken not by one of the ministers, but by the prime minister himself.

"What did (Lester) Pearson do? He took it as notice."

A few days later, Pearson offered him a chance to look through the government’s file on the matter. Schreyer refused.

"I didn’t take it because it required an understanding that you had to keep the contents confidential," Schreyer said. "I thought that would put me in a problematic position. I just wanted to make sure there was no danger to the individual, the family and the country.

"I was reassured there was no significant danger... it was left somewhat as an open question."

A few months later, defence minister Leo Cadieux was quoted in Hansard as saying "it is not the intention of the Department of National Defence to make public the report of the alleged sighting."

Although he never met Michalak in person, speaking to him at the time on the phone, Schreyer said he hopes to visit the site this summer with his grandchildren now that he knows they can get there on horseback.

"Having made a point of trying to find out more information at the time, yes, I’d like to see the site with my own eyes."

•••

Standing on the flat rock that his father described as the one the UFO landed on, Stan was surprised how accurate his father’s hand-drawn map — drawn from memory in the days after the incident — really was.

While he expected to see the flat rock, he didn’t know it was sloped slightly.

"It still baffles me — the slant we are on — but then I remembered how he described the object tilt as it went up," Stan said. "Now I know it probably tilted because it was coming up from a slope."

Again Stan wondered: "What the hell was he doing here?"

"There is nothing for him here, the geology stakes and the looking for precious metals," he said. "I sure as hell wouldn’t want to spend time here.

"But he was here. I know that now."

And he has a theory about why his dad, and many others around the world, have reported so many UFOs in the post-Second World War years.

"When we blew up the first nuclear bomb and we sent our first radio signals, we got attention. Maybe it was, ‘What are they doing on that planet? Oh, they’re killing each other. Let’s check back in a few hundred years.’"

•••

When Michalak died on Oct. 28, 1999 at the age of 83, there was no mention in his obituary of the Falcon Lake Incident, only of how his "passion for this vast, new country developed into a love of nature, open spaces, animals and birds and a celebration of what Canada’s unending wilderness had to offer" and that "geology became one of his hobbies and the reason for many trips to the wilderness to see the world in a grain of sand."

For a man whose hobby of prospecting had given him such joy, the Falcon Lake Incident also marked the end of his amateur prospecting career, Stan said.

"When he died, we found several wooden boxes of rocks in the basement. I kept only one or two samples — the rest went into the garden."

kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca

Social Services Minister Christian Porter has ordered an urgent investigation into how a UFO group in NSW has been given nearly $6000 in taxpayer-funded grants.